Your Right to Know

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoBarbara J. Perenic | DISPATCHJanice Estepp, 69, of the West Side, gets a daily hot meal thanks to LifeCare Alliance, which is trying to expand its endowment from $5 million to $20 million.

Janice and Otis Estepp enjoy one hot meal a day, delivered by smiling volunteers who are often
the only people to stop by and check on the West Side couple.

“It’s nice. It’s the only hot meal or company we ever get,” Mrs. Estepp said. “Who doesn’t like
food and friendship?”

Mrs. Estepp, 69, enjoyed cooking in her younger years, but two back surgeries, arthritis and
other ailments have slowed her down.

Her 77-year-old husband tries to help, but he has trouble breathing and limited skills in the
kitchen, she said.

Without assistance from LifeCare Alliance, the Midwest’s leading provider of Meals on Wheels,
the couple would likely be among the 1 in 7 seniors nationally who struggle with hunger.

To continue to help clients such as the Estepps, LifeCare Alliance plans to launch a campaign
this year to grow the agency’s endowment from $5 million to $20 million by 2020.

If it reaches that goal, LifeCare Alliance would be able to distribute about $1 million a year
to support agency programs and clients. The group also runs two food pantries and a free cancer
clinic, and provides home health aides to the elderly and chronically ill.

The agency’s annual budget is $14 million.

Chuck Gehring, LifeCare Alliance’s president and CEO, will unveil the “20 by 20” campaign at the
annual Big Wheels fundraising gala tonight. Because they feel strongly about the need, he and his
wife, Kris, will make the first pledge: $25,000 over five years.

The Gehrings made a similar contribution to the agency’s most-recent capital campaign, which
raised $7 million from 2007 to 2012 to open a 40,000-square-foot complex on Harmon Avenue that
includes a meal-distribution hub and warehouse.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the future,” Gehring said. “I’m 57 years old, and let’s say I
have another 10 years here. The best thing I could do is make sure the group goes on for another
116 years.”

Having a larger endowment would keep the agency from having to put potential clients on a
waiting list and allow it to grow even as government grants, United Way contributions and other
traditional funds continue to shrink, he said.

Thirteen years ago, local, state and federal grants made up about 80 percent of LifeCare
Alliance’s overall budget. Today, it’s about 40 percent, Gehring said.

“We’ve lost $5 million a year in traditional funding the past six years,” he said.

Despite the shift, LifeCare cared for more clients in 2013 than ever before: 15,000 statewide,
partly because it started providing meals in Marion County.

The agency has created five for-profit “social enterprises,” including a diner, a catering
service and a corporate wellness program, to support its nonprofit activities.

Though more charitable organizations in central Ohio are starting endowments and looking for
creative ways to raise new money, “We’re not where we need to be,” said Lisa Courtice, executive
vice president of community research and grants management for the Columbus Foundation.

Charities often have a hard time saving money for the future when their budgets are so tight —
much as many people struggle to save for their retirement. And unlike universities, they don’t have
alumni who remember them fondly and want to give back, Gehring said.

“It’s about giving a gift not just once and it’s gone, but that will live on for decades,
helping some of the most vulnerable, frail and isolated seniors,” he said.